king derelict

Thanks OC. its been a great kit to build. I understand that Hood and Prince of Wales are even better so I look forward to seeing their builds kick off. Mine are still in transit - or lost. Tracking has been silent since the start of August. That will teach me to think I could beat the delivery time from an in country store. Alan

After important diversions like undercooking the burgers and filling the GFs house full of smoke from the grill we return to the calm waters of the Geisenau build. The anchor chains were added. These came with teh wooden deck and I like them better than the two dimensional PE that were provided with the kit. I installed most of the railings. This is the first time I have done 100% of the railings using Gators Grip glue. I followed Craig's technique of cutting the longer sections into shorter pieces and found that much easier and its also less weight for the glue to hold while its drying. I also applied the glue and let it set up for a few minutes before installing the railing; the grip was much better that way and after a bit of fiddling with the first piece the rest went on quite well. I'm trying to avoid CA glue as much as possible; I have a nasty feeling I am getting sensitised to it. I finished painting the Arado and added the decals (well, alright not the swastikas on the tail) and placed it on the catapult. Much to my huge surprise the machine gun is still in place in the rear cockpit of the Arado i placed the flags on their staffs and started on the swastikas. So far so good. Just the flags to complete and install, the railings to finish and the weathering of the hull. Thanks for checking in Alan

The face on the middle guy is spectacularly good (the others are also really good). A real expression. Alan

Saturday always seems to be a day for errands so very little constructive gets down. Actually between tasks I was able to add a piece of the swastika decals, let it dry and add the next piece. The three piece stern decal wasn't too bad but the six piece bow one was a fiddly piece of work and needed thought as to how it fitted together. Letting each piece dry so the next piece didn't move it helped a lot and its not too dreadful. Considering the mess I had a couple of days ago I think its reasonable. A little bit of touching up, last washes and I can move onto the deck railings and anchor chains. Suddenly it seems almost complete. Thats almost scary! Thanks for looking in Alan

Thanks OC I was beginning to think I had ruined it. Alan

Ken, Many Thanks for your help. Armed with your information I was able to identify the ships crest on a couple of photos of the real ship. Just added them to the model. Thanks Alan

Last night I ran a line of clear coat around the inside of the paint masks at the bow and stern. This morning I started the layers of white paint. It took several coats to get rid of the pink tint but I think I have it back to white. Removing the masks showed no bleed of the colour this time (thanks Grant) and I think I can move forward after a bit of touching up. The deck plank lines are gone but I think its acceptable. I could try to scribe a few lines but I think it may look scruffy and I think I will leave well alone and hope the decals provide enough of a distraction. I added the torpedo tubes with help from Craig to locate them. Many Thanks. The last few small parts are now on so I looked at the decal sheet. This is my first WWII German ship and my first acquaintance with the problems of the swastika decals. I understand the political and legal issues that kit manufacturers have with selling in the global market but I am amazed at the length Flyhawk have gone to with the swastikas on this decal sheet. The ones for the identification panels on the deck are like jigsaw puzzles. Its going to be really interesting trying to get them placed; especially the bow panel; if I have figured it out correctly there are six pieces to it. Another minor grumble with the instruction sheet. It identifies a few markings for the Arado but for the ship you are on your own/ There is a ships crest and nameplate (items 17 and 18) but no idea where they live on the boat. The instructions have been a bit disappointing yhis time. It will be interesting to see how the POW and Hood ones are. Have a great weekend everyone Alan

Thanks Lou Now I have the decals to wrestle with 😄 Alan

Thanks Gregg It looks like it is coming out well. A lesson for the future though. I have Scharnhorst in the pile. Alan

Thanks Grant I put down a layer of sealer last thing yesterday and the white paint this morning looks like it stayed put. Thanks for the tip. Alan

I ran some sealer around the masks before painting the white again and I could see the sealer wicking under the mask as i did it. Those wooden decks are real sponges. Alan

OC; You're right - the breakwater would be the place to make the change. I think I may have dodged having to do that and I would rather not buy another wooden deck. Thanks Alan

I'm glad your brother turned up safely OC. Scary stuff. I am always amazed how well you paint these faces. Each figure has an individual face and looks very real - and they are tiny. Great Stuff Alan

Very impressive Craig. The paint finish is so smooth; its beautiful. I have been havering about the six wheel Mercedes staff car and this might nudge me over the edge; especially with the diorama possibilities. Great work The pin up girls and the Hitler Youth are the obvious items for the diorama 😄 Alan Alan

Today was a rather disappointing day. I masked the bows and stern to air brush the red sections of the identification markings and sprayed them up. On removing the masks I was horrified to see that the red paint had bled extensively under the masks and ruined the white circles but worse, had bled across the wooden deck. I tried a little gentle scraping with a scalpel blade but as I suspected the paint had soaked extensively into the thin wood and there isn't any depth in the deck to scrape anyway. I thought of trying to piece in some of the waste material that surrounded the wooden deck pieces but it doesn't have the plank lines and I think would look very untidy with the difference at the cuts being obvious. After a thinking some more I tried the Tamiya Buff and Deck Tan paints and found a mix was very close to the wooden deck. So I used the spare bits of the paint mask to cover the red part of the markings and hand painted a mix of the colours onto the wooden deck up to the mask. I reversed my original decision to not weather the deck. I think I can let the difference in shades com out as weathering. I held off on repainting the white to let the red fully cure overnight. So far I think it is a reasonable recovery although I'm still not sure what went wrong. Possibly the red was too dilute but the test spray looked normal so maybe the wooden deck wicked the paint under the masks. Maybe the masks were not down hard enough but I was careful about burnishing them. Possibly a bit of all the above. For some reason the white went on fine the day before. Maybe I should have used a sealer on the wooden deck before painting. I'll experiment with the waste parts. It looks hopeful so far. The ultimate fall back position would be to buy another wooden deck set and splice a new fore deck in possibly at abreast of the first set of AA guns. I would prefer not to do that but I'll see how bad the recovery looks once its all dressed up. After a cup of tea and a slice of Bara Brith I felt strong enough to continue and added a lot of the final details and the big guns at last. I still have the Arado to finish and the deck railings to add along with the anchors, chain and staffs but I think the end is looking close. I have a paint touch up and wash session before calling it finished. I have an enormous amount of unused parts still on the sprues but a careful check of the instructions doesn't turn up anything I have missed. Looking at CDWs Scharnhorst i can see where a lot of the spare bits might go. Thanks for looking in Alan

Thanks Craig I would appreciate help with the torpedo tube placement. This isn't the best set of instructions that Flyhawk have generated. There are a few wrong part numbers called out although its relatively easy to identify the right ones on other sprues and some of the views really don't help with part placement. A PM is on its way to you. I usually paint the PE on the fret but my mistake this time was building up the big cranes on a blob of Blue-Tack without realising that I would end up with a very delicate assembly that would be difficult to remove when it was time to install it. The added problem of removing stray bits of Blue-Tack compounded the issue. Its all a learning experience and thankfully there are people like you and OC to help/ Thanks again Alan

Thanks OC. Using another bit of Blue-Tack to remove the residue worked a treat. Thanks for the tip. The real problem with the PE was judging where to set the reverse curve after fashioning the first curve and then dry fitting in amongst the scenery. The paint brush handles are a good idea though. I have a better selection of them on the table than rollers for the PE tool and some handles taper which gives me even more scope. I was using my large brush for the PE around the big gun turrets this afternoon. Many Thanks Alan

Congratulations on your first air brush session. I use any left over paint in the cup to experiment on a piece of cardboard to learn about distance, pressure, trigger position (mine is a double action brush too). I'm still trying to get away from trigger down and fully back for everything and learn to use the part positions for finer lines. I think that is a key skill for free hand use of the air brush. The figures have very dynamic poses and great faces. Its hard to remember that they are not 54mm Great Stuff Alan

Sweden - September 3rd 1967 http://realscandinavia.com/files/2014/09/kungsgatan1967.jpg

Yep. I think Sweden used to drive the same side as Britain but they switched in the 1960s I think which must have been a fun experience Alan

Yesterday was a day to try the patience. After finishing the PE railings around the aft upper deck I started on the complex shaped railing that runs around the deck with the 105 mm guns. It did not go well. After a couple of attempts to work with a continuous length of railing I cut it into two shorter lengths. I still found it very difficult to form the curves to fit and test fitting was a nightmare because of the scenery around the area. In the course of the next two hours I knocked off the boat rack (which was not fun to reinstall), a ladder and one of the barrels from the 105mm guns. The PE was getting increasingly beat up too. The last try of the day got it close enough. Further efforts were going to damage the PE and make it look worse. After clean up it should look reasonable and there are more parts to hide some of it. I gave up at this point and raided the beer cellar. A fresh day today and I cut and bent the port side railings and had them installed in twenty minutes with no collateral damage. I seemed to get the shape without too much trouble this time. I don't think it would have been better done earlier in the build because of the boat racks and boats that have to be placed. I'm wondering if making a cardboard template of the deck would have been a good idea then all the test fitting could have been done less stressfully off the ship. Of course that would require thinking ahead. I wonder if I will remember the thought for next time something like this occurs. I masked and sprayed the white circle of the identification marking at bow and stern The rest of the afternoon was spent adding the 150 mm guns and the large cranes. Adding the cranes was a tense operation; there was very few areas free of PE to grip them while placing them. As an aside I'm not sure if this is a Florida thing or not but I often have trouble with Blue-Tac sticking a bit too tightly to parts and often leaving a residue when it is removed. This was particularly bad with the cranes and the first one was very difficult to clean up because of the PE. Out of curiosity I put the second crane on the fridge for a few minutes and it released cleanly from the Blue-Tac I just realised that Geisenau has torpedo tubes but I don't think I've seen them in the build instructions. I'll have to poke around a bit. Thanks for looking in Alan

Thanks Lou Yesterday was quite a debacle regarding knocking stuff off. Difficult to know if I made a net gain in teh day Alan

Many Thanks OC, its much appreciated. Stuff just keeps piling in there and more to come Alan

And BANG it suddenly comes to life. The buildings are a great showcase for your figure painting. I'm so glad you are removing the bases instead of a war gaming style diorama. The guys on the table look perfect. Alan

This looks like it will be really interesting and a great setting for the car. The cars engine and running gear looks terrific, really like well used metal. I look forward to seeing the figures being painted. I'm thinking of trying a few in the shadow of the experts. Great Stuff Alan